When BDK defended the always controversial white emcee, he also criticized those of his own "color" for not acknowledging "their own" like Macklemore had stepped in and done.

In an interview with XXL, Furious Five pioneer Melle Mel expressed a similar sentiment. Only he took a step further and named names.

"I know for a fact that J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar or Rick Ross or Jay Z or any of these cats, they would not have done it, ever," Melle Mel said about Macklemore's 'Downtown.' "They would not have done it. It took him to do it. And all those other so-called 'real cats,' they should hang their heads because somebody should have done it by now. They could have reached back to any of us. If you’re making records and you say you’re Hip Hop, you’re supposed to have a connection to what Hip Hop really is. And nobody made that connection until Macklemore made the connection. And I’ve had this conversation quite a few times since everything happened and had that little controversy of, yeah, the White boy, using the OGs, or blah blah blah. And like I said, none of those other guys would have ever done it. And it’s a shame that that’s the reality of what the game is right now."